Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Editor-at-large for RealClear Investigations, Ben Weingarten to the newsmaker line to discuss his recent article uncovering the rise of media literacy and the indoctrination of America’s children.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome to our newsmaker line, Mr. Ben Weingarten with RealClear Investigations. A great article, Ben, by you last week, The Problematic Rise of Media Literacy Education. Welcome, Ben to The Tennessee Star Report.
Weingarten: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Leahy: So what is this thing, media literacy education?
Weingarten: Media literacy education is framed by the teachers and librarians who promote, and the politicians for that matter, as being very neutral and apolitical about teaching kids both how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the content they consume and its veracity, as well as the credibility of the sources that they go when they look up information in school.
However, when you peel back the layers of the onion and you actually look at what it means to scrutinize content that the media delivers and the like, what you find out is that the training materials themselves generally point people to left-wing sources.
There is a discipline within media literacy called critical media literacy which is a derivative of critical race theory and a Marxian lens essentially for breaking down and deconstructing media messages. And this is framed much more broadly in the context of the politicians who promote this as being about helping our kids combat harmful, mis and mal information, which as we all know now via the Twitter files and numerous other revelations, is oftentimes really a Trojan horse combating information that conflicts with the prevailing ruling class establishment orthodoxy on a whole slew of issues.
So this media literacy education is being promoted increasingly in states across the country. In my native New Jersey, it’s now being incorporated by mandate into the K through 12 curricula, and it may well be coming to a public school near you unless people are awake to it.
Leahy: How many states currently promote this propagandistic media literacy education?
Weingarten: There are over a dozen states right now that have some form of media literacy law on the books they’ve been passing, or at least pending in many states at an accelerating rate really since 2016, which of course correlates with and there may be causation with the rise of President Trump.
And of course one of the ironies here is that this moral panic that’s been blown over myth and disinformation has been rooted in itself as information operations arguably. That is Trump-Russia collusion and f course, the Hunter Biden laptop story arguments that were made about the Chinese coronavirus claim that they were mythed in disinformation that ultimately proved to be settled by science and true. So this whole moral panic should be viewed as one of the derivatives of it.
That you already have in effect, a censorship regime that has been imposed via social media and directed by our U.S. government. And now you have it potentially coming into K through 12 schools and about a dozen states have pending legislation this year already. So this is a fast mushrooming movement here.
Leahy: Where’s the money coming for groups like Media Literacy Now? The advocacy groups pushing for this kind of propaganda in K-12 public schools?
Weingarten: There are two major organizations that back this. As you noted one is Media Literacy Now, which is a relatively modestly funded group, but behind many of the legislative pushes throughout the country, and they have their chapters in almost every state. There’s another major organization called NAMLE, and that organization hosts an annual conference on media literacy, which is backed by major heavy hitters in terms of the think tank/nonprofit world, the Big Tech companies, and a whole codery of educational organizations as well.
Plus the U.S. government itself. And that obviously should raise an antenna a little bit. Both Media Literacy now and NAMLA have received grants or awards from the US State Department. And this parallels something by the way that we just saw in bombshell testimony and documentation from Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi about the Twitter files where they laid out the censorship industrial complex and showed that you had the U.S. State Department funding these anti-disinformation efforts across a whole slew of fact-checking or research organizations.
So there’s another analog here and it suggests that potentially schools might become another node in the censorship industrial complex, as they call it, and that media literacy is one of the wedges into it. There’s also been federal legislation that’s been proposed that incorporates funding for media literacy education. It hasn’t passed yet, but stand by, it may well.
Leahy: NAMLE stands for National Association for Media Literacy Education. It’s been around since 1997. And it looks like all the usual suspects are sponsors of it, the Big Tech companies, et cetera.
Weingarten: That’s right. And what’s remarkable is you look at this organization and perfectly illustrates the kind of slippery nature of media literacy. If you look at how they describe media literacy, it’s all about looking at the funding behind sources and what kind of message are they trying to amplify here.
Looking at things with a very skeptical eye in scrutinizing them, which, by the way, everyone obviously should look at media with a very skeptical eye. There’s always a reason behind the message. There are a million ways that a message can be slanted, but then you actually dig a bit deeper and you look at the content of their conferences and what do they promote?
Media literacy through a DEI lens. There’s actually a direct quote. Many people see media literacy as social justice in and of itself, and it’s worth noting the purpose of media literacy that its promoters always tout is about civics. But what do they mean by civics? They mean political activism and not in a conservative direction.
Leahy: I can tell you what they don’t mean because we’ve got a little National Constitution Bee that we’ve done here based upon a book called A Guide to the Constitution and Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students that I’ve co-authored.
We’ve been doing this for six or seven years now and we give scholarships out to kids. Let me just tell you this. K-12 public schools throughout the United States and also in Tennessee have very little interest in promoting that particular project. That’s not their idea of civics.
Weingarten: Look, we see federal judicial nominees as being put up right now who don’t know basic parts of the constitution or the law. And I think you can draw a straight line from the lack of civics education or a warped version of civics education that we’ve already had for years, and that continues to be perpetuated when you frame media literacy in a civics paradigm.
Leahy: So let me ask you the big question. This is like part of the left-wing wave to indoctrinate America’s kids that’s been overwhelming K-12 public education. Looks like pretty much all young teachers believe this sort of authoritarian approach, this propagandistic approach to K-12 public education. What’s a parent to do?
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Benjamin Weingarten” by Benjamin Weingarten. Background Photo “Social Media Apps” by Piotr Cichosz.
Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, there’s a very interesting article in The Western Journal about Andrew Cuomo criticizing Alvin Bragg. Have you seen that? On the networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS where the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, when he would speak during COVID, which was regularly, the media in this country hung on his every word and they thought he was the most brilliant person on the planet.
Maybe the most brilliant person to ever live on the planet. They treated him with great deference. They thought he would be the next presidential candidate for the Democrat Party. And there weren’t enough nice words that they could come up with about Andrew Cuomo. But Andrew Cuomo is now saying Alvin Bragg, what he’s doing is, I don’t understand.
And then I’m quoting here. I don’t understand why Bragg is putting such emphasis on this case. This law in the state is a misdemeanor. And it has also passed the statute of limitations as a misdemeanor. And so Cuomo is actually coming out criticizing Alvin Bragg. But guess what? The media doesn’t think that Cuomo’s words are worth reporting.
Alvin Bragg now has a terrible problem on his hands because he has set expectations and he realizes that if he tries to fulfill those expectations, there’s a good chance he’ll end up in front of Congress. He’ll have to produce information. And he may end up getting lying before Congress. And if you get another Republican administration, he could be the one who’s in the box.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Andrew Cuomo” by Andrew Cuomo. Photo “Alvin Bragg” by Alvin Bragg. Photo “Donald Trump” by GPA Photo Archive. Background Photo “Courtroom” by Carol M. Highsmith.
Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to weigh in on My Pillow CEO, Mike Lindell’s recent comments in Waco who condemned ballot harvesting.
Leahy: Right now Crom, let me just say, I wanna play this clip. Mike Lindell clip who makes really great pillows and is ubiquitous out there on Fox News. Every time you turn around there’s Mike Lindell.
Carmichael: Especially on the My Pillow ads.
Leahy: Selling my pillows. And they’re good pillows. He also is really big on politics.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: And he was down at that rally in Waco.
Carmichael: Oh, he was? Okay. He was. , let’s just hear what he had to say. And then I, you and I need to react to this a little bit. Here’s Mike Lindell in Waco, Texas yesterday.
(Mike Lindell clip plays)
This voter fraud, but also recently he’s been saying let’s beat the left at their own game, at least until we get into office. So that no. Don’t even go there. I’ve talked to him about that. We are not gonna do what they’re doing. We’re not gonna ballot harvest. And you will not hear him saying that. We’ve worked for two years to get same-day voting, paper ballots, hand counted, no machines. And if you say that we wanna do what they do, ballot harvest and do this the Republicans would just make it legal to what’s illegal in a lot of states, and it’s over, we lose our country. So that narrative, you will not hear him saying that anymore.
Leahy: I have some advice for Mike Lindell. Stick to pillows, buddy.
Carmichael: Ballot harvesting is legal in some states.
Leahy: In many states and it’s legal.
Carmichael: It’s legal.
Leahy: I don’t like it. Do you like it?
Carmichael: No, I do not. But it’s legal. I think it leads to very high levels of corruption.
Leahy: Absolutely.
Carmichael: This reminds me a little bit, I’ve got a couple of friends who absolutely hate it when you can pay a college player. Name, image, and likeness. NIL. I have some friends of mine who hate that, think it’s going to destroy college athletics, and think that colleges should stand against it.
Leahy: But the Supreme Court ruled it’s legal.
Carmichael: It is legal. It is here. And so if a college believes that, that name, image, and likeness is so bad that they refuse to participate then they will end up getting very inferior athletes.
Leahy: They’ll be at the bottom of the range.
Carmichael: They will be at the bottom. Because if the rules e even if you don’t like the rules, you still have to play by the rules if winning is your goal.
Leahy: Exactly.
Carmichael: Now that doesn’t mean you have to play outside of the rules.
Leahy: Play within the rules.
Carmichael: But you have to play within the rules. And so if Mike Lindell is saying, for example, I believe ballot harvesting is legal in Wisconsin. I believe ballot harvesting is legal in Arizona.
Leahy: And Pennsylvania. And I believe it’s in Georgia.
Carmichael: In Georgia. So if to the extent that ballot harvesting is legal in the competitive states if the Republicans choose not to do ballot harvesting, they won’t win a single one of those states yet.
Leahy: They will get their clocks cleaned. Mike Lindell, stick to pillows.
Carmichael: What’s more troubling is not what Mike Lindell said because he agreed with it. He said no. I’ve talked to him. I’ve talked to him. Meaning Trump. Trump’s the one who is now opposed to ballot harvesting. That’s what Lindell said. I’m only responding to what Lindell said.
Leahy: We’ll let Donald Trump speak for himself.
Carmichael: I’m more worried about what Lindell said as to who he was referring to of who’s against bound harvesting. Because let’s remember Michael, Trump was against ballot harvesting in 2020.
Leahy: And look what happened.
Carmichael: He absolutely opposed it.
Leahy: There is legal and illegal. The Democrats are good at both of them.
Carmichael: Yes. But now they’ve legalized it in the name of COVID. And they even legalized it without going through the legislative process. They were able to do much of it.
Leahy: I agree.
Carmichael: But that’s where we are. Mandates by the governor and then approved by the court.
Leahy: Mike Lindell, three words, my friend. Stick to pillows back after this.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Mike Lindell” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the new ambassador for Turning Point USA, Nashville singer-songwriter Alexis Wilkins in studio to talk about making conservatism cool.
Leahy: In studio with us, Alexis Wilkins, a rising young star in country music, and also a conservative. Wow! What a combo. You can see her on the web at Alexiswilkins.com. Let’s talk politics here.
Wilkins: Let’s do it.
Leahy: A little birdie told me that you’ve now been named him an ambassador for Turning Point USA.
Wilkins: Yes.
Leahy: So now Turning Point USA has galvanized young conservatives around the country. Charlie Kirk runs it. They’ve been at it for 10 years. Charlie’s an interesting fellow. I think he started this when he was 19 years old or 18. Something like that. He’s 29 now.
Wilkins: Yes.
Leahy: He got the late Bill Montgomery who’s not with us anymore, but I think back when Charlie first started he was his first donor. I think he got a $3 million contribution from Bill. A lot of people get $3 million and it goes nowhere.
Wilkins: That’s true.
Leahy: Charlie has turned this into a huge enterprise.
Wilkins: Yes. It’s amazing.
Leahy: Frankly, the energy among sort of young conservatives is with Turning Point USA. When I went to the CPAC conference, the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. and I have to say we were all a little bit long in the tooth there. (Chuckles)
Wilkins: Really?
Leahy: There were not a lot of younger people there. It was fine, but the attendance was maybe two-thirds, three-fourths of what it normally is and it was an older crowd.
Wilkins: Interesting.
Leahy: Let’s just say, there were a lot of people there older than me. (Laughs) So it was an older crowd. But tell us how you got involved in Turning Point USA. And now you’ve just been named a Turning Point USA Ambassador, right?
Wilkins: Yes. So it’s interesting because I was in college during the 2016 election and everything leading up to it. As I said, I was in business and political science and so for me, I originally looked at Turning Point as my resource for patriotic values in college and kind of made it through that.
And so watching Turning Point from its earlier years and its inception to where it is now, and now being involved on a more ambassador level. I’m really excited to promote those values and speak on their talking points and just be a part of it.
Leahy: As an ambassador, like they’ll say, hey, here are these events we’d like you to go to, right? Yeah. And then you go to there’s one in Texas coming up that they’ve asked you to go to. And so you go to these events. Do you speak only? Do you play your music? What do you do?
Wilkins: I think we’re still working out the details. I’m happy to be a part of whatever capacity they need me to spread their message. And whether that’s music or speaking I’m happy to be here.
Leahy: In September in Phoenix, there was something called America Fest.
Wilkins: Yes, I went to America Fest.
Leahy: That was pretty rowdy from what I could tell. Lots of energy there.
Wilkins: Lots of energy.
Leahy: And now you performed there, didn’t you?
Wilkins: I went as a guest and as an influencer guest and did media and got to experience it.
Leahy: But you didn’t perform at that event?
Wilkins: I did not sing.
Leahy: They do have entertainment at these various venues. Charlie, listen to me, Charlie, Kirk. She’s gotta perform next time. Next America Fest, get Alexis Wilkins as your headliner.
Wilkins: There you go. Thank you.
Leahy: Let’s talk a little bit about your generation and the challenges your generation has. When I grew up many years ago, let’s say America in the sixties and the seventies.
There was a lot of left versus right stuff going on about the war, but there were a lot of people who were politically engaged but were conservative. In my generation, let’s say the ratio would be two liberals for every conservative. In your generation, what is it like five liberals for every one conservative, or even worse?
Wilkins: Oh, I don’t even wanna know what the ratio is. (Chuckles)
Leahy: Now look, I’ll say this for young, particularly at Turning Point USA. And when I say young people aged 16-30. That’s the Turning Point wheelhouse. It’s not actually the same.
If it was two to one liberal to conservative when I was growing up, it’s not even liberal anymore. My guess would be four left-wing lunatics and two liberals for every conservative in the 18-30 age bracket.
Wilkins: That would check out.
Leahy: That would check out. So how do you maintain conservative values when so many of your peers are at the opposite extreme and they’re not tolerant? How do you deal with that? It’s gotta be isolating to a degree.
Wilkins: You find people that resonate with your values and you stick with them. And, given, at college and the places that I’d say that age range hangs out you’re not gonna find a ton of them. But there is hope and there are people that you will find organizations like Turning Point, finding those spaces where we do exist. Which is hard to believe.
I know when you look at the landscape of college and young people now. But you find the things that align with your values and for me, I’ve never been bothered by people disagreeing with me or not liking me for the things that I believe because it’s logical. Pro-America and pro-patriotic values, it’s just not that difficult to really suss out. And if you know who you are.
Leahy: I see that. But the problem is that when we interact with the left-wing lunatic crowd, and there are far fewer in my generation, you just can’t have a conversation with them.
Wilkins: Right.
Leahy: I think that’s the problem that I find. Is it the same in your generation?
Wilkins: It is. And I think that it’s hard because we come from such a systemic school system I talk a lot about the way that education is absolutely geared to indoctrinate kids.
Leahy: No kidding.
Wilkins: Yes. I don’t know that there’s a lot of negotiating with this age range. And I don’t say that as a hopeless statement. I say it as you have a huge group, I think larger than it looks a group of young conservatives or at least pro-America values.
Leahy: Larger than it looks. Is that because they’re being intimidated by their peers and social media and institutions?
Wilkins: I think so. I think that in the last couple of years, people coming into voting age and around that area, it’s not been made very cool in the media to be a conservative. And I think we’re coming into a time where between Turning Point and people coming forward and saying, hey, these are the things that I believe you can still do your job.
You can still have a job in the media. You can still go to college and believe these things. I think as you have people come forward with their views, it can be made cool. It sounds silly, but I think making conservatism cool can connect with everybody.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Alexis Wilkins” by Alexis Wilkins.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to discuss age and politicians.
Simon: I am very pro-Trump, but I’m more pro-Vivek because Vivek is Trump without any baggage. And also, he’s more original even than Trump.
Leahy: He is quite original.
Simon: I have to admit a lot of his thinking, mirrors mine. So there is a little bit of arrogance in this because one of the things that he says, and I really believe because I’m a post-sixties guy myself, and he’s much, much younger. He is half my age.
Leahy: He’s 37. Thirty-seven. By the way, the youngest president elected was John Kennedy at the age of 43. Vivek would be 39
Simon: But let me say it, and I pointed this out in The Epoch Times that Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Leahy: Very good point.
Simon: And Alexander Hamilton, when he signed the Constitution, wait for it…was 20. These guys were incredibly, by our terms, precocious.
Leahy: It’s interesting because back to the whole, Trump will and Biden will be 82 versus Kennedy in 1960 at 43 and Nixon at 47, there was a vibrancy to the two of them.
Simon: Yes.
Leahy: Which Trump and Biden don’t have. Let’s be honest at that age.
Simon: I’m closer to Trump and Biden.
Leahy: But you’re pretty vibrant.
Simon: I try to be vibrant. I read this essay recently, don’t let the old man in. And I try not to because I work out and play tennis all the time. Anybody my age, that’s my advice to you. I think it’s necessary right now in our society for younger people to come in.
Leahy: I agree completely.
Simon: We can’t stay here forever, ala Pelosi or these people because no matter who you are, when you reach a certain age, your ideas are formed by what happened a long time ago.
Leahy: I’ve got a phrase for it.
Simon: Go.
Leahy: Ossified. (Chuckles)
Simon: That’s very good.
Leahy: I look at Joe Biden, and that adjective ossified comes to mind.
Simon: He’s ossified in his power.
Leahy: So the thing that’s very impressive about Vivek Ramaswamy is this. Saturday morning Trump comes out and says, I’m gonna be arrested on these trumped-up charges on Tuesday. He’s not been arrested yet.
Lots of things have happened since. But within an hour, Vivek Ramaswamy and his team have a spot on email release and stories come out. He’s the first guy that says this is…
Simon: And he challenged DeSantis and Haley to join him.
Leahy: Exactly.
Simon: And they didn’t. Finally, DeSantis did, but in a very mealy mouth way. And I’ll tell you something. I was sitting in the car when he did this. Right next to him.
Leahy: Were you sitting right next to him when he did that?
Simon: Absolutely.
Leahy: So this was Saturday morning when he wrote it?
Simon: I was riding around.
Leahy: What time did you hook up with him or join the travel team?
Simon: Early, early Saturday morning.
Leahy: This is fascinating. So did he have any advanced notice that Trump was going to make this claim?
Simon: Not as far as I know.
Leahy: So there he is. You’re sitting next to him. He composes a statement, which was spot on while he was in the car with you.
Simon: Yes, he’s also able to flip on his phone and video himself extemporaneously, boom on virtually any subject.
Leahy: Hitting it. So he’s got the advantage of speed and intellect on point.
Simon: That I’ve never seen in politics.
Leahy: That’s a very big comparative advantage because everybody else in politics, what they do as is they bring in the focus groups and they bring in the wordsmiths. And they just agonize over it.
Simon: I wrote in The Epoch Times, this guy’s not gonna need a speech writer. Some people have accused me of being pro-Trump, so I could be his speech writer.
Leahy: This is gonna be great for your book because there you are with him at the first really critical turning point in his campaign, and you see him compose in real-time this statement that boom, gets him out in front.
What’s interesting about this is on Monday night, Donald Trump puts out a social media posting after, in essence, DeSantis criticizes Bragg, the DA, for politicizing and weaponizing his Manhattan DA’s office. But then he throws the shade, he mentions I don’t know anything about paying hush money to a porn star. Obviously bringing up that as an attack point.
Simon: As a ding.
Leahy: As a ding on Trump. Missing the point in terms of winning the primary.
Simon: You could say he’s missing the point.
Leahy: Or you could say his point was he wanted to ding Trump.
Simon: One or the other, or both.
Leahy: Then Monday night, I think, changed the VP race, in my view. I don’t know what your thoughts are.
Simon: I definitely, agree.
Leahy: So then Trump goes up and says, oh, DeSantis is dropping in the polls. I think that young Vivek Ramaswamy is going to surpass him.
Simon: So far, he’s only called Vivek young. This is true compared to the rest of him; he’s very young. Vivek thinks that as it goes on, he’s gonna get a nickname now. I don’t know what it’ll be, but maybe he won’t, and if doesn’t, that will be, I think that will be a sign that he’s going up.
Leahy: I’ll tell you the nickname. Young Vivek. If he goes with that, it makes this point back that you and I have been talking about, right? The ossified nature of a 78-year-old versus an 82-year-old running for president in the general election. I think that post by Donald Trump Monday night was a signal.
Simon: Oh, I did too.
Leahy: The signal is, I’m not picking DeSantis as VP. Now, we’re looking at Kari Lake in Arizona, and I’m looking at Vivek. That’s what it looks like to me.
Simon: I had the exact same reaction, and I think that’s good too. Can you imagine Vivek debating Kamala? My piece on The Epoch Times is, oh yeah, that’s the tag to the whole thing. And all the commenters were saying, yay! It would be a donnybrook. It would be really something to see.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to discuss the average age of presidential candidates and the genius of Vivek Ramaswamy.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome to our studio, my very good friend, my former boss at PJ TV, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, excellent writer, novelist, mystery writer, and depending on the day, the most popular columnist at The Epoch Times, Mr. Roger Simon.
Simon: I’m happy to be here.
Leahy: I’m delighted to have you here. You’re just finishing up your book, American Refugee, and then you’re starting a new book, The Making of the President 2024.
Simon: Here I go again. (Chuckles)
Leahy: Here you go again. One thing I noticed of course, it’s a modern version of the classic The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore White. This is interesting, Roger to notice the difference in this country over the past 64 years since Kennedy, the Democrat nominee who won in 1960 was 43 years old. Nixon, the GOP nominee, was 47. Their average age was 45. This time around it looks like…
Simon: They’re 106.
Leahy: Yes, this time around, Trump is going to be 78 if he gets the nomination, which it looks like he will at this moment in time. And Biden, if he chooses to run, will be 82. The average age will be 80. What does that say about our country?
Simon: 80 is the new 45? (Leahy laughs) I don’t think so.
Leahy: That’s a great line.
Simon: I would say part of it is you better have a vice presidential candidate who looks capable of taking over. I don’t think Kamala is, Miss Giggler. I think the guy I was traveling around with the last few days in South Carolina is the best possible vice president.
Leahy: He’s 37 years old. He’s our buddy, Vivek Ramaswamy. Tell us how this came about. You’re writing this book about The Making of the President 2024. How did you come to be spending the weekend driving around South Carolina in the same car with Vivek Ramaswamy, the presidential candidate?
Simon: Part of it’s thanks to you, and I tipped the hat. It’s not on now cause of airphones, but I usually wear a hat, and I tip the hat to you because you put me in first contact with him. And then I wrote some things about him and quoted him in The Epoch Times.
I think they liked it. And then is publicist, a bright woman named Trisha McLaughlin, sent me his schedule. He was gonna be in South Carolina, and do you want to come down? And I said, sure. The Epoch Times sent me down there, and that’s what happened.
Leahy: Tell us how the weekend went.
Simon: I ended up sitting in the s u v with him for almost two days.
Leahy: So who’s driving?
Simon: A driver and there were about four people in the car. I got to say, I’ve met a lot of politicians in my life or semi, he’s not really a politician yet, which is probably good, but from Teddy Kennedy onwards. And this is the highest IQ I’ve run into period.
Leahy: Of any political candidate.
Simon: Going away. There’s no question. This is a guy, as I wrote in The Epoch Times, I was sitting next to him while on his laptop as the car was driving, he was writing an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal all about his criticisms of the Federal Reserve.
At the same time, he is talking to someone on the phone and to the four of us in the car about all different matters and did it in five minutes. Now I’m a fast writer. And then he read the thing back to us and it was superb. There aren’t too many people who can do that on planet Earth. And also, his wife is equally brilliant.
Leahy: She’s a medical doctor, surgeon.
Simon: Yes. A laryngologist. It’s a hard word to pronounce, coming from the throat, which it does. And she’s one of the world’s experts in swallow problems. And a very attractive couple with kids that are eight months and three years.
Leahy: We’ve got a 37-year-old multimillionaire entrepreneur.
Simon: From biotech research into Alzheimer’s, among other things.
Leahy: He is a very intelligent and honest guy. No blemishes on his record that we know of. And very personable. And, speaking personally, because I’m a tennis nut, as and it’s probably in some of the audience, you know, he’s also an avid tennis player. And I found out subsequently because I said, hey, let’s play. And we were joking about it that he was number one in Ohio in the juniors. (Chuckles)
Leahy: That’s pretty good.
Simon: As well as valedictorian.
Leahy: But wait, there’s more!
Simon: I don’t know what could be more. He is also a bestselling author.
Leahy: He also plays the piano. He’s a classical pianist. How about that? (Chuckles) He’s a pretty good guy.
Simon: Yes.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden.
